PUBLIC HEARING
CONSTANT YIELD TAX RATE
JUNE 4, 2018
Mayor Cerino called the Public Hearing on the Constant Yield Tax Rate to order at 7:00 p.m. In attendance were Councilmembers David Foster, Linda C. Kuiper, Rev. Ellsworth Tolliver and Mauritz Stetson, W. S. Ingersoll (Town Manager), Jennifer Mulligan (Town Clerk) and guests.
Mayor Cerino read the public notice for the Constant Yield Tax Rate hearing, which ran in the Kent County News on May 24, 2018 and May 31, 2018 into the record:
The Mayor and Council of Chestertown proposes to increase real property taxes.
- For the tax year beginning July 1, 2018, the estimated real property assessable base will decrease by $0.099% from $562,768,097 to $557,215,401.
- If the Town of Chestertown maintains the current tax rate of $0.3700 per $100 of assessment, real property tax revenues will decrease by 2.74% resulting in a $20,544.98 reduction in real property tax revenues.
- In order to fully offset the effect of decreasing assessments, the real property tax rate should be increased to $.3737, the constant yield tax rate.
- The Town of Chestertown is considering increasing its real property tax rate enough to fully offset decreasing assessments. The Town of Chestertown proposes to adopt a real property tax rate of $0.42 per $100 of assessment. The tax rate is 0.1239% higher than the constant yield tax rate and will generate $257,990.73 in additional property tax revenues.
A public hearing on the proposed real property tax rate increase will be held at 7:00 p.m. on June 4, 2018 at Town Hall, 118 N. Cross Street.
The hearing is open to the public, and public testimony is encouraged. Persons with questions regarding this hearing may call 410-778-0500 for further information.
By Authority of
Chris Cerino, Mayor
The Mayor asked Mr. Ingersoll for any further explanation of the Constant Yield Tax Rate. Mr. Ingersoll stated that the last time the Town had to have a Constant Yield Tax Rate hearing was in 2006 when the Town reduced taxes from $.38 to $.37. He said that things were much better in the economy at that time and because of the rising assessments at that time, the Town tax rate would yield more funds than they had the year before.
Mr. Ingersoll stated that the Constant Yield Tax Rate hearing is for the municipality to explain any raise in taxes, either by the rise of assessed values or by the taxing rate. He said that if the tax rate is unchanged but the state assessments go up and actually raise the tax yield it has to be explained by said municipality. The same has to be done when the municipality raises their tax rate and it results in a higher tax yield.
Mr. Ingersoll stated that a hearing on the actual budget was being held following this hearing and asked if there were any questions on the Constant Yield Tax Rate.
There being no questions or comments, Mr. Foster moved to close the Constant Yield Tax Rate public hearing at 7:05 p.m., was seconded by Mr. Stetson and carried unanimously.
Submitted by: Approved by:
Jennifer Mulligan Chris Cerino
Town Clerk Mayor